We are tickled to be launching our EIGHTH great season on Thursday February 21st. We’d love it if you could join us!

Thursday February 21st at 7:00pmCinecycle
129 Spadina Avenue (slightly down the alley)

BROTHERHOOD

Dir: Meryam Joobeur
Canada/Tunisia/Qatar/Sweden – 2018

Mohamed is a hardened shepherd living in rural Tunisia with his wife and two sons. He is deeply shaken when his eldest son Malik returns home after a long journey with a mysterious new wife. Tension between father and son rises over three days until reaching a breaking point.

Official Selection – Sundance Film Festival

Official Selection – Toronto International Film Festival

Duration: 25:00

ALL-INCLUSIVE

Dir: Corina Schweingruber Ilic
Switzerland – 2018

Under the spell of mass entertainment on the high seas.

Official Selection – Sundance Film Festival

Official Selection – Toronto International Film Festival

Duration: 10:00

CAROLINE

Dirs: Celine Held and Logan George
USA – 2018

When plans fall through, a six-year-old is faced with a big responsibility on a hot Texas day.

Best North American Short – Palm Springs International ShortFest

Official Selection – Cannes Film Festival

Duration: 12:00

BENEATH THE INK

Dir: Cy Dodson
USA – 2018

As society’s belief systems are seemingly changing, or even reverting in time, one Ohio artist is challenging his community by saying, “bring me your mistakes.” Inspired by recent events, Billy Joe White and his Red Rose Tattoo Studio are promoting one simple concept… ERASE THE HATE. Beneath the Ink is a timely look at hate and racism in the western foothills of this Appalachian region that reveals heartfelt stories of change and redemption.

Fast Horse follows the return of the Blackfoot bareback horse racing tradition in a new form: Indian Relay. Siksika horseman Allison RedCrow struggles to build a team with second-hand races and a new jockey, Cody BigTobacco, to take on the best riders in the Blackfoot Confederacy at the Calgary Stampede.

Special Jury Award for Direction – Sundance Film Festival

Duration: 14:00

FATHERLAND

Dir: George Sikharulidze
Georgia – 2018

.In 2016, on the 63rd anniversary of his death, Stalin’s worshippers gather outside his birthplace in Georgia to demand his canonization as a saint … when something uncanny materializes.

Official Selection – Sundance Film Festival

Duration: 15:00

Help us kick off our 2019 season! The Facebook RSVP is free, and door tickets are just $10 (a 20% price reduction from previous years). And why not bring a friend? 🙂

This month we’re proud to present a curated programme of notable American short films from the past decade or so. These films have played festivals around the world and we’re happy to bring them to you here in Toronto. Please join us and bring a friend or two!

Crystal Lake is about a group of girls who take over a skate park, forming an all-female force field on the half pipe. There on the ramp, with no boys around, they are thriving and visible. This is an anthem for young feminists which presents female friends as a means to survive adolescence. EVERY GRRRL-SHAPED BREATH IS A BATTLE CRY.

Duration: 16:00

STRYKA

Dir: Emily Carmichael
USA – 2015

Stryka is an awesome reptile woman from another planet who does heists and odd jobs with her (literal) partner in crime, Callen. But she has a secret: she’s been stealing with somebody else. (She just wants a partner who cleans up well enough to pull off a fancy jewel heist once and a while–is that so wrong?) Anxious about her career in thievery and torn by her loyalty to competing thieves, Stryka has to figure out where she belongs. Luckily, she has a highly advanced robot therapist to talk it over with.

Duration: 8:00

THE PROCEDURE

Dir: Calvin Lee Reeder
USA – 2016

A man is tranquilized on the street and wakes to find himself tied up in empty room. But what is that thing coming down?

Duration: 4:00

AFTERMATH ON MEADOWLARK LANE

Dirs: David Zellner, Nathan Zellner
USA – 2007

While on their way to a mariachi recital, a devastating car crash forces a mother and her two sons to confront the truth about their past.

Duration: 10:00

FRY DAY

Dir: Laura Moss
USA – 2017

An adolescent girl comes of age against the backdrop of serial killer Ted Bundy’s execution in 1989.

Duration: 16:00

DARLING DARLING

Dir: Matthew Lessner
USA – 2005

Meeting your date’s parents is never a comfortable experience, but the event is taken to unexpected levels of surreality in Matthew Lessner’s directorial debut starring Michael Cera as an awkward and flustered everyteen forced to make small talk with his prom date’s bizarre father.

Duration: 12:00

MEN DON’T WHISPER

Dir: Jordan Firstman
USA – 2017

After being emasculated at a sales conference, gay couple Reese and Peyton decide the only way to regain their confidence and prove their masculinity is to sleep with some women. When they meet fellow conference attendees and pleasure seekers Beth and Dominique, it seems like a perfect match. Unfortunately sealing the deal is easier said than done.

P.S. We have a pair of tickets to give away courtesy of imagineNATIVE to their LOVE STORIES shorts program on Saturday October 21st at 5:45pm. One raffle ticket free with admission. Others are just $1 each!

Lenny Upton combines euthanasia with his used furniture business to provide suicide assistance to melancholy customers with a death wish. Armed with a briefcase full of weapons and an eye for antiques, he custom designs a personalized death experience for his one-time clients. All sales are final in this short film that takes a darkly comic evaluation of the value of life and used furniture.

Best Narrative Short – Scruffy City Film and Music Festival

Duration: 12:30

PRELUDE

Dir: Isaiah Stratton
USA – 2016

With the help of an intuitive therapist and the love of a woman that he does not remember, a damaged musician fights through the loss of his memory.

Audience Award, Short Film – Scruffy City Film and Music Festival

Duration: 10:00

THE OTHER SIDE

Dir: Griselda San Martin
Spain – 2016

The Other Side is the story of deported musician Jose Marquez and his daughter Susanna who have been separated for almost 15 years but meet every month on either side of the US-Mexico border wall.

Best Documentary Short – Scruffy City Film and Music Festival

Duration: 6:00

CHANGE

Dir: Isaac Kerlow
Singapore – 2016

Constant change is a natural part of Earth’s life, and its interconnected systems can easily adapt to slow change. But the natural balance gets disrupted when changes happen rapidly. Our growth and prosperity are changing Planet Earth, and some of those changes may be forever.

Best Animated Short – Scruffy City Film and Music Festival

Duration: 5:15

A LOVE STORY – AUDIENCE AWARD WINNER (TIE)

Dir: Anushka Naanayakara
UK – 2016

A powerful tale about love faced with darkness.

Best Student Film – Scruffy City Film and Music Festival

BAFTA Award – Short Animation

Duration: 7:00

WISHING BOX

Dir: Lizzie Zhang
USA – 2016

The pirate Derek and his monkey sidekick, after years of sailing the high seas, finally find a treasure chest, a magic box that makes wishes come true.

Best Director – Scruffy City Film and Music Festival

Duration: 5:30

SILENCE

Dir: Dejan Mrkic
Australia – 2016

A sensuous portrait of a young musician who begins to tackle the fragility of her own identity when her hearing starts to fade into a seemingly muted existence. NOTE: Contains nudity and sexual content.

Best Actress, Best Sound Design – Scruffy City Film and Music Festival

Duration: 14:30

WOMAN WITH AN EDITING BENCH

Dir: Karen Pearlman
Australia – 2016

Inspired by the woman who edited Man with a Movie Camera (1929), Woman with an Editing Bench reveals the personal impact of Stalin’s censorship of cinema on a woman navigating politics, bureaucracy and the impetuous outbursts of collaborators to create something beautiful despite the odds.

Best Editor – Scruffy City Film and Music Festival

Duration: 15:00

URBAN AUDIO SPECTRUM

Dir: Marina Schnider
Germany – 2016

An audio visualization through manipulation and animation of video recordings in the city of Berlin.

Best Music Video – Scruffy City Film and Music Festival

Duration: 4:00

POLLYANNA – AUDIENCE AWARD WINNER (TIE)

Dir: Roman Gubin
Canada – 2017

A young girl’s internal struggle is expressed through a contemporary dance.

Duration: 1:30

It’s time to celebrate six seasons! The Facebook RSVP is free, advance tickets are (still!) just $10, and door tickets are only $12. And why not bring a friend? 🙂

We showed Arnaud Brisebois’ first short film Trotteur way back in April 2012, so it’s a pleasure to welcome him back in 2017. Anime follows two young people through a post-apocalyptic cityscape as they scavenge for food and shelter. Brisebois’ sense of visual style is stronger than ever.

Duration: 12:00

THE COMMITTEE

Dirs: Gunhild Enger and Jenni Toivoniemi
Norway/Finland/Sweden – 2016

Three delegates from Sweden, Norway and Finland are gathered in Lapland to decide on an art piece, which is to be placed where the three borders meet geographically. But the committee is in for a surprise.

Official Selection – Locarno Film Festival

Duration: 14:00

SECOND TO NONE – AUDIENCE AWARD WINNER

Dir: Vincent Gallagher
Ireland – 2016

Frederick Butterfield is tired of always being runner up. When he becomes the world’s second oldest person, he hatches a plan to claim first place.

Official Selection – Toronto International Film Festival

Duration: 7:00

TEN METER TOWER (HOPPTORNET)

Dirs: Axel Danielson and Maximilien Van Aertryck
Sweden – 2016

A ten meter diving tower. People who have never been up there before have to choose whether to jump or climb down.

Official Selection – Sundance Film Festival

Duration: 16:00

AUDIBLE STATIC

Dir: Sai Selvarajan
USA – 2016

Thaddeus is a teenager in love. Love comes with panic. Silence. Racing thoughts, but no words. Just, audible static. In the last days of analogue, Thaddeus finds a way to cheat the system.

Duration: 11:00

3-WAY (NOT CALLING)

Dir: Molly McGlynn
Canada – 2016

A couple decide to spice up their sex life with a threesome. Now where can they find the willing third?

Official Selection – Toronto International Film Festival

Duration: 11:00

A BRIEF HISTORY OF PRINCESS X

Dir: Gabriel Abrantes
France/Portugal/UK – 2016

A supercharged history of sculptor Constantin Brancusi’s infamous “Princess X,” a futuristic bronze phallus that is actually a bust portrait of Napoleon’s equally infamous great grand niece, Marie Bonaparte.

Official Selection – Toronto International Film Festival

Official Selection – Locarno Film Festival

Duration: 7:00

It just might be shorts weather again, so we’ll show you ours if you’ll show us yours! The Facebook RSVP is free, advance tickets are (still!) just $10, and door tickets are only $12. And why not bring a friend? 🙂

We’re kicking off our SIXTH great season next month and we’d love it if you could join us. We have an amazing lineup of films and after that, we’ll be walking over to Lou Dawg’s Southern BBQ (76 Gerrard St. E.) for food, beverages, and post-screening conversation. We’d love it if you could join us!

Object is a creative and abstract image of an underwater search. The action takes place in the dimensions of two worlds – ice desert and underwater. The story is told from the point of view of the rescue team, of the diver entering the water all covered by ice, and of the ordinary people waiting on the shore.

Winner, Short Film Special Jury Prize for Visual Poetry – Sundance Film Festival

Duration: 15:00

PEACE IN THE VALLEY

Dirs: Michael Palmieri and Donal Mosher
USA – 2015

Peace in the Valley follows the town of Eureka Springs, Arkansas on the eve of a groundbreaking vote for LGBT rights. As the polls close, citizens on all sides of the issue grapple with the roles faith, sexuality and commerce play in their personal lives and community. Meanwhile, at the largest outdoor production of the life of Christ in the USA, the audience is waiting and the show must go on.

Official Selection – Sundance Film Festival

Duration: 15:00

SUNRISE ON THE TOTAL CHAOS

Dir: Craig Norris
Canada – 2016

An experimental short that surrealistically transports viewers to the deck of the Total Chaos, a lobster fishing vessel on the magnificent Bay of Fundy at sunrise.

Duration: 5:00

THE SHINING STAR OF LOSERS EVERYWHERE – AUDIENCE AWARD WINNER

Dir: Mickey Duzyj
USA – 2016

The strange but true story of how Japanese racehorse Haru Urara became a nationally celebrated symbol of perseverance while enduring a losing streak of epic proportions. Director and artist Mickey Duzyj traveled to Japan to uncover the story behind the horse’s unlikely rise to celebrity, and presents this animated short as the answer to how an undersized horse who vowed to “Never Give Up” became known as The Shining Star of Losers Everywhere..

Official Selection – Sundance Film Festival

Duration: 18:00

ROUGH WATERS

Dir: Claire Imler
USA – 2016

Submerged in the darkness of her depression, Katie struggles to stay afloat the rough waters in her life, but uncovers what matters most in her journey to recovery.

Duration: 6:30

THESE C*CKSUCKING TEARS

Dir: Dan Taberski
USA – 2016

The uncompromising voice behind the first gay-themed country music album – 40 years after its release.

Official Selection – Inside Out Toronto LGBT Film Festival

Duration: 16:00

UNDERDOG

Dirs: Naomi Mark and Vivian Belik
Canada – 2016

With economic and physical challenges in the way, a young Japanese expat prepares to compete in a 1000 mile dog sled race to fulfill her mother’s dying wish.

Duration: 10:00

Show us your shorts and we’ll show you ours! The Facebook RSVP is free, advance tickets are (still!) just $10, and door tickets are only $12. And why not bring a friend? 🙂